Will the Oxford vaccine be available privately?

November 2020 | Reading time: 2 minutes

The Government has placed a very large order with the Oxford vaccine group / AstraZeneca, but will it be available privately?

The UK government has placed an order for 100 million doses. To put that number into perspective, orders of 10 million doses and five million doses have been placed with Pfizer and Moderna respectively.

Like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Oxford vaccine requires two doses, so the initial order would be enough to treat 50 million UK residents. One of the important distinction with the Oxford vaccine is that it can be stored at normal fridge temperatures, which means it will be much easier to transport and store.

When the vaccine is distributed the most vulnerable UK residents will be the first to receive it. This includes:

• All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers, though they may move up the list
• Anyone 75 years of age and over
• People aged 70 and over
• All those aged 65 and over
• High-risk adults under 65 years of age
• Moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
• All those aged 60 and over
• All those 55 and over
• All those aged 50 and over
• The rest of the population, with priority yet to be determined

At the time of writing, no vaccine has been approved but experts believe a rollout of one or more vaccines could happen before the end of the year, however, it’s unlikely that the Oxford vaccine will be approved in 2020 as there are still several analytical and regulatory steps to go through.

Will I be able to get the Oxford vaccine privately?

When the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved and distributed, the UK’s supply of the Oxford vaccine will be significantly greater than that of any order placed thus far. It is not yet known what Oxford’s potential production scale will be, or when there will be sufficient stock to supply private medical groups. When this time comes, it’s likely that the vaccine will be available privately, but by this point, the Pfizer and Moderna will probably have been available for some time.